Environmental context. The transport and fate of organic pollutants such as fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs) in the atmosphere affect their risks to the environment and human health. On the basis of hourly trajectory predictions, we found that, from 2007 to 2010, individual levels of 6:2, 8:2 and 10:2 FTOH were from non-detectable to 72.4 pg m^–3 at two Alpine summits. Air mass origin was an important factor determining the Alpine atmospheric FTOH levels.

Environmental context. Volatile selenium compounds from the oceans may ultimately be an important selenium source for agricultural soils. It has been hypothesised that marine algae are responsible for volatile selenium emissions, but in laboratory experiments, we observed minimal volatile selenium production by two marine algae known to produce large amounts of volatile sulfur. Instead, we found hints that bacterial processes may be important in the production of volatile selenium in the oceans.

Environmental context. Releases to the aquatic environment from radiological dispersal devices, accidents or leaking waste disposal sites require close monitoring for radionuclide identification. A novel in situ gamma spectrometer deployable on platforms in coastal waters can provide detailed radioisotopic, however, only after the radionuclides are pre-concentrated on efficient sorbents. Here, we report results of particle–water distribution coefficients, K_D, on three novel MnO₂ sorbents using a set of artificial and natural radionuclides in small batch experiments.

Environmental context. Water is an essential compound for life; however, several factors limit the amount available for human consumption. Every day, thousands of pollutants are discharged into drinking water. Here, new materials that are efficient as adsorbents and photocatalysts for pollutants are reported.

Environmental context. Glyphosate is a heavily used herbicide that is mobilised in soil and sediments through adsorption–desorption processes from the surface of mineral particles. We demonstrate that the desorption rate of glyphosate from goethite, a ubiquitous mineral, is nearly independent of the concentration and nature of the substance that is used to desorb it. The results elucidate the desorption mechanism and are relevant to understand and predict the environmental mobility of glyphosate.

Environmental context. Permeable reactive barriers are a developing technology to clean up contaminated groundwater. The contaminant plume moves through a reactive material placed below ground that retains or degrades the pollutants. This study shows that pine bark compost strongly adsorbs and retains metals, mostly by interaction with the organic matter of the compost, and thereby serves as a suitable reactive filler material to clean up contaminated groundwater.

Environmental context. Oceans and seas have the potential to play a significant role in providing renewable and clean energy. In particular, salinity difference energy aims to extract the enormous amount of energy that is released when fresh water rivers flow into the oceans. Capmix methods are focused on this challenge by using capacitive carbon electrodes whose optimisation will certainly help in developing salinity difference energy.

The dispersion of antimony in the environment has been misunderstood over the last few decades. Investigating the solubility of naturally forming mineral phases such as nadorite resulted in determination of its limited role in Sb dispersion, providing evidence that nadorite can only limit antimony dispersion in mildly oxidising conditions. Nadorite can only play a significant role in Sb immobilisation in a particular redox window, which forms only a minor part of the framework of Sb dispersion.

Environmental context. Interfacial properties of colloid and nanoparticles are directly related to the reactivity and surface densities of existing surface sites. Surface characterisation of particles provides only some kind of average surface properties. Analysis of well-defined monocrystal surfaces, which form the surface of the single particle, leads to a better understanding of surface reactions and mutual interactions of adjacent crystal planes on average surface properties.